AA Edit | In praise of a season when voter is ‘king’

One should normally eschew falling for use of monarchical terms in discourses relating to democracy. It would be a defeat and a betrayal to describe politicians, leaders in power, as kings or queens. But we do, often in error.

But a little vent to a slight smug of a trace of schadenfreude is apt when we describe this electoral season as a time for the underdog, the truly subaltern in every sense, the weakling in our society, having lots of fun at the cost of the powerful.

And one must be able to justify using the term, king, or queen, for the voter, who, in this season where the high and mighty squirm and sweat and huff and rush to please the almighty voter, is having a lot of fun, including collecting some illegitimate benefits, because it is a rare reversal and we must celebrate it as a victory of democracy.

In a casteist world, imagine the leaders of the highest caste have to rush to the colonies of those they would normally never consider equal with folded hands and to touch feet, to smile and beg, to request, to make promises, even if aplenty are false and go begging after the results, to try to please, to meet not just as an equal but even as one placed a step below, all for the sake of that one single vote.

In a world defined by the stations of class, imagine all those millionaires and billionaires, forced to abandon their luxury and comfort, their private planes and helicopters, those luxury cars, to tread and trod on foot, through narrow lanes of deprived slums and neglected neighbourhoods, forced to breathe the stinking air, forced to even pretend to drink the water they supply, or don’t, or even partake in a shared meal, hugging the old, kissing the kids, shaking hands without having a sanitiser to use immediately thereafter. All this because they want that one vote.

Only if you have been living in a monarchy or a true dictatorship would you realise that element of fantasy comes true in this set of routine rituals we in a democracy take for granted. It is a time when the powerful are truly humbled. It is a time when the powerless are truly upgraded to the one trip of power, in this journey of life. It is a time when the tables are turned. It is a time to celebrate the view of life when reality is turned upside down.

And yes, let us also give to these politicians in frenzy a little leeway, cutting them a little slack. Give them the space to make false promises, to lure, to tell lies, to try to fool and mislead poor gullible voters. Let us be a little less critical of leaders and parties even as they foist and force bizarre narratives upon us, trying to make illogical appeals to our sentiments and emotion, trying to cheat us with false news, false data, false everything.

How does it matter what the minion of the moment does? The voter is, afterall, the king. Till the last date of the elections, at least, cheers, to that joyful, gleeful triumphant feeling.